


Touched by Shadows

by laulan



Series: 30-300 [26]
Category: Fairy Tales and Related Fandoms, Original Work
Genre: Depression, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-10
Updated: 2013-01-10
Packaged: 2017-11-25 01:21:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/633583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laulan/pseuds/laulan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>For ages now, you’ve been cursed.</i> Darkish fairytale.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Touched by Shadows

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of a project where I wrote one 300-word ficlet for each day in September. Warning for extensive talk of depression.

For ages now, you’ve been cursed.

You know it’s a curse, because the ordinary things don’t work to make it go away. A hot cup of tea with milk will ease it for a while, but it always creeps back. Laughter with friends is the same way: it grants you half a day of respite before you choke on it again. Keeping busy will press it down only for a short time before it surprises you in the kitchen or a library or the street.

This curse darkens things. It hangs around you like smoke, dimming the world and everything you touch; it makes your lungs heavy and your breath come slow. Your thoughts come slow, too. Everything slow. The worst, though, are the taunts and dragging sadness it weaves into your every heartbeat, so strong and pressing you can barely look in the mirror without it following with a thought of how pathetic you are. It steals through your body and mind until you can think of nothing else. Some days you can barely move with its weight.

You’re not a princess; you’re just an ordinary person. No one is going to come rescue you from this. Exhausted and terrified and stubborn, you decide to try to rescue yourself.

-

The first fairy you visit gives you a pinch of powder and a smile, and seems puzzled when it doesn’t work. The second fairy and the third are much the same. Finally, you visit a witch instead. She peers at you for long minutes, lips pursed.

Finally, she says, “I can’t help you.”

“I’m sorry?” you croak.

She looks at you with heavy eyes. “Magic can't fix this. It’s an illness, not a curse.”

You suck in a breath. “Then what will fix it quickly?”

Her silence is answer enough.


End file.
